So, this is weird. A credit union in Florida charges a $2 fee if your arm isn’t hanging out of your window with your deposit slip in hand as you pull up to the drive-thru window. And that’s not the only fee that SunState Credit Union charges. They’ve got a $2 fee for coming in more than 4 times a month, and another charge for not using the telephone banking system.

Bank and credit union fees are designed to be difficult to avoid and easy to accrue and they’re going up all the time. The President of SunState Credit Union responded to media backlash over the “credit slip” fee with the following observation:

“As consumers are expecting to pay less in interest charged on loans, banks and credit unions need to find other sources of income,” Woodward said. “I think that if you look at our competition, you’d see that the fees we’re charging are fair based on what’s going on in the market right now.”

We assume he said that while wearing mismatched socks, because if he didn’t, we’re going to have to assess our “wearing matching socks while making a PR statement” fee of $30 dollars. Sorry, bank-president-guy, that’s blog policy. —MEGHANN MARCO

I have to beg to differ on one point: when I’m at the bank and I hear that the monkey in front of me who’s been waiting in line for the past 5 minutes hasn’t bothered to use the time to fill out the slip I’m irritated. I woudln’t mind at all if my bank instituted a tax on the inconsiderate bastages.

Well, having worked on and managed a teller line in the past, I can SORT OF see the validity of this fee. It’s extremely annoying when you work the drive-thru window and there are 2+ lanes who don’t have everything ready within a reasonable amount of time. It backs up the drive-thru, pisses off other customers who have to wait, and it’s pointless. Most drive-thrus have a large unlaned space BEFORE the lanes so that customers can sit, get everything together/signed/etc., and then pull up with everything ready.

I used to be a bank teller. With people who were notorious for arriving at the window with nothing filled out, my manager would allow us to send them to the back of the line to fill their items out again.

My only concern would be that sometimes people are out of the deposit slips. I personally make quite a few deposits because of the cash my part time job generates and am always out of them. The ATM is not really an option because it takes so long to individually feed all the bills.

I agree – if you want to stay with a bank who’s going to charge you fees that are ridiculous in your eyes, why are you complaining instead of peeling out of there and finding another institution to take care of your funds? See ya, Sun State.

Wachovia does the same thing with counter withdrawals. However, this charge:

…another charge for not using the telephone banking system…

seems redundant. If you’re not going in the branch over 4 times a month does it matter if you’re not using the phone system either?

As for paying a fee for not having your deposit slip ready, it’s hard to feel sorry for people who want to hold up the line. The credit union would probably rather kick those people out of the line but that would be hard to enforce.

Banks have the darnest fees! I recently experienced an act of fee-very. During March 12th through 16th, I was out of town and had to use atms that were labeled: NOT YOUR BANK. The generic warning message popped up stating that NOT YOUR BANK fees will be charged and YOUR BANK, which is not anywhere around here may charge you fees also. One month later, after paying all those fees, my bank charges me their fees. And when I asked why they waited so late to charge me, they said they charge all fees at the end of the statement cycle. Yeah right, overdraft fees are done at the time of action. How backards is that!

@Rider: I agree. Maybe more. Personally I think the idea of an “express lane” that allows more than 10 items is ridiculous.

As for banks, I’m with WAMU and haven’t had a problem with them. I also don’t use the drive thru specifically because I don’t usually have deposit slips with me. I don’t want to waste someone else’s time there.

Man, and I thought the nastygram the teller sent with my requested deposit slip was bad. I make all my deposits at the ATM now, even though they seem to have backed off on the “hateful notes if you run out of deposit slips” policy.

I get as steamed about greedy bank fees as the next guy, but I sure wouldn’t mind if unprepared customers just got sent to the back of the line. With nothing else to do but wait in line for 20 minutes, it seems a deliberate act of spite to wait until you’re at the counter to fill out your shit.

This is akin to the person who waits in the supermarket to fill out their entire check and holds up the line. I say more power to you with the “inconsiderate asshat fee” if it’s proven to work.

Also, I make it a point to go into the bank and request a stack of deposit slips. Usually they tell me to just grab as many as I need from the desk. I keep them in my car next to a stack of ATM Deposit envelopes, because it always seems that the ATM I am at gives out neither.

I have to agree with some of the posts here that the fee is justified, as it is a hindrance to all the other customers in line if the person at the window doesn’t have their paperwork filled out. However, I think that the opposite should be true as well, when tellers take excessive time to taking my checks/slips and process them, they should have to pay me $2. It is only fair.

However, I have to say a “not using the telephone service” fee and a “coming into the bank more than 4 times” fee are retarded. You should NEVER be charged for NOT using a service. Where is the logic in that? Aside from them just being greedy, which by the way will not help them get customers, there is no justification. And coming into the bank more than 4 times a month? What if I never withdraw month that whole month and the only reason I am coming in is to deposit more money? So you are going to charge me money because I want to lend you my money? Thanks, have fun in bankruptcy.

I thought a credit union was a “not for profit” entity in which case they are essentually allocating certain operating expenses to those that use them most, thus the return for most others is higher interest. (Or there is a big fat bonus for the bank president who thinks up this stuff but (s)he’d have to be in bed with the trustees.)

@realserendipity: *shrug* Every drive through I’ve been to in the last 15 years has had a little stand near the entrance wher eyou can pull up and get deposit and withdrawal slips.

If they are out in both places there’s room for negotiation, but were’ nto talking about them– we’re talking aobut the inconsiderate asshats that spend all their time on teh phone/talking to their friend/playing with the kid in the line and suddenly at the window they’ve got to fill out their slip.

“As consumers are expecting to pay less in interest charged on loans, banks and credit unions need to find other sources of income,” Woodward said. “I think that if you look at our competition, you’d see that the fees we’re charging are fair based on what’s going on in the market right now.”

first of all, jim woodward owes me a $25 nfs fee, as in you make no-fucking-sense. second, if some cunt pump doesn’t have their shit ready in the drive-thru, then send to the back of the line.

I completely agree. Checking accounts are FREE. Banks let you use their infrastructure to keep your money safe and draft it out whenever you want, and in return they use your cash to make more cash. If your asshattery is costing them more money than they could ever make with your money, why shouldn’t they charge?

Far as I’m concerned, anyone who goes to the bank and uses a teller 4 times a month on a regular basis is wasting everyone’s time, as are the people who go up to the teller without anything filled out. Of course, the people that do this are also the ones who tsk-tsk about the long lines and the lack of free pens.

If retail stores were forward-thinking enough, they’d abolish taking checks completely. The overhead involved has to outweigh the 1% the cc company charges.

Not-for-profit entities are generally more incompetent than for-profit entities (all things being equal) because there are no “owners” to enrage, no concern about “going out of business” or gaining and retaining new customers. You rely only on the goodwill of the people running the place. If they care, great for everyone. If they don’t, it’s a pure living nightmare. Like the social security office or the DMV.

…..I don’t see a problem with the “delay the line, pay up” policy. Walmart and Sam’s should be doing this, too! The other charges, though…

…..I live in an area where everybody drives. Negligible public transportation. This means that bank drive-thrus are nearly always jammed with cars. I haven’t used one in 25 years or more. It’s WAY quicker to park and walk in.

@Hossofcourse: I would agree if it was a case of just charging people for dealing with humans, but charging people for not dealing with an automated system is dumb. Imagine this situation: You have your paycheck direct deposited and you never go into your physical bank location. If you also choose not to use the telephone system should you really be charged for that? If you just do not use either telephone banking or human banking, why should you incur a charge? They should be happy that you are not costing them money by using their systems.